AUI (Augmented Intelligence Inc.), the company behind Apollo-1, the world’s first neuro-symbolic foundation model for task-oriented conversational AI, has raised $20 million in new funding, reaching a $750 million valuation cap and bringing its total funding to nearly $60 million to date.
The funding round saw participation from eGateway Ventures, existing shareholders, investors from New Era Capital Partners, and other strategic partners. This follows AUI’s earlier $10 million raise in September 2024 at a $350 million valuation, during which the company also announced a strategic go-to-market partnership with Google Cloud.
Redefining Conversational AI with Neuro-Symbolic Architecture
Founded by Ohad Elhelo and Ori Cohen, AUI has spent eight years developing Apollo-1, a model that merges neural and symbolic reasoning — a breakthrough computational architecture designed to ensure deterministic, policy-compliant, and fluent task execution. The innovation addresses what experts call the “missing half of conversational AI.”
While large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini have excelled at open-ended dialogue, AUI aims to solve the challenge of task-oriented conversations — where AI must perform reliable, real-world actions such as bookings, payments, or registrations.
“There’s a reason everyone knows the names ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini,” said Ohad Elhelo, co-founder and CEO of AUI. “But there’s still almost no example of a major enterprise successfully deploying reliable conversational agents at scale. LLM-based agents work well in open dialogue, but they’re not reliable enough for serious task-oriented deployments.”
Unlike conventional deep-learning models that rely on massive pre-training, AUI’s neuro-symbolic approach embeds procedural knowledge directly while using neural modules for perception, language comprehension, and generation.
“LLM-based open-ended dialogue represents the B2C framework of conversational AI, while neuro-symbolic task-oriented dialogue ushers in the B2B era — where reliability, determinism, and policy adherence matter as much as fluency,” said Gideon Argov, Managing Partner at New Era Capital.
Apollo-1: Built for Enterprise Reliability
Apollo-1 is not designed to act as an autonomous agent but to empower organizations to build custom, domain-specific conversational agents that adhere to internal policies and operational rules.
“I have seen some of today’s top AI leaders walk away with their heads spinning after interacting with Apollo-1,” said Chris Varelas, co-founder of Redwood Capital and an early investor in AUI. “This was a small bridge financing that came together in under a week, ahead of major announcements planned for later this year.”
Already deployed within Fortune 500 enterprises, Apollo-1 is being integrated into real-world systems to enhance operational efficiency, improve automation, and drive reliability in digital interactions.
Founded in 2017, AUI employs 45 team members and counts among its early backers Joshua Boger (founder of Vertex Pharmaceuticals), Aron Ain (Chairman of UKG), and Jim Whitehurst (former President of IBM). The company plans to announce general availability of Apollo-1 following the completion of current enterprise deployments.